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It’s a Quads Vs Hammies Smackdown!

Brick. The name of the workout is called “a brick.” It’s a bike ride followed immediately by a run, and is used to simulate a triathlon race day. It’s called a brick because your legs will feel like bricks if you try to run after being on a bike for a while. Bricks are hard.

I thought the brick transition feeling might be a myth, like the 5-second rule, or the injury-free barefoot runner. I thought that maybe, just maybe, it just wouldn’t exist for me, like the way that I never had any wisdom teeth form (srsly, no wisdom teeth). I was so very, very wrong.

Being a runner, it’s my hamstrings (back of the thighs) muscles, or “hammies” that are the main power house muscles. Of course, all the leg muscles work in conjunction, but in running, hammies can either make you go faster or make you miserable. On a bike, it’s the quadriceps (front of the thighs), or “quads” that rule and help you kill the hills. In a brick, it’s hammies vs. quads. One guess as to which one is stronger on me.

There’s a battle brewing in there.

When I go from bike to run on a brick workout, I imagine there’s a conversation going on between my quads and my hammies that goes like this:

Quads: Whew! Those were some hills. I’m on fire!

Hammies: Okay, Quads, we’ll take it from here. Time to run.

Quads: I don’t think so, buddy. We’re still firing.

Hammies: Let it go. We got this. *grunts*

Quads: Sorry, we’ve been in this position for so long I just can’t stop.